2. amps-preamps
  3. 194431-150037

Can using a bad tube hurt an amplifier?

If you're using a tube for a while, and everything's fine, and then voltage changes over time gradually, and then it damages an amplifier? are amps Built with controls to prevent that from happening?

How can you trust using a tube if it potentially could harm an amplifier?

Assuming You're using the correct tube in the slot provided.

 

emergingsoul
wspohn's avatar
wspohn
622 posts
 

Thinking back to the days when every drug store had a tube tester in it, it would have been nice to have foreseen needing one in the future and picking up one as they were pulled from the stores.......

niodari's avatar
niodari
334 posts
 

Yes. My SET amp was  damaged (the capacitor below the tube and then other things, it was not easy to repair it) when an El-34 tube was blown up. In fact, I was in front of the amp watching how the tube was blown up, I powered the amp down but the damage was almost immediate. 

emergingsoul OP
1,313 posts
 

Maybe all this supports getting monos.  So it's at least a 50% problem, although still bad.

unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
1,146 posts
 

It depends on the amplifier design. 

I had a 6LF6 tube short the moment I turned on one of my Futtermans, and it somehow - we still haven’t figured out how - blew the low frequency driver completely out and caused the voice coil to lock onto the magnet when it tried to return. 

Amazingly, no damage to the amp! 

That happened once in 40 years and god only knows how many tens of thousands of hours of use. 

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